“parents needn't bother driving small children around to see the purple mountains' majesties; the children will go right on duking it out in the back seat and whining for food as if you were showing them Cincinnati. No one under twenty really wants to look at scenery.” IfsWantLooksChildrenParentMountainTwentiesDrivingBotherSeatsPurpleMajestyScenerySmall ChildWhining Author:Barbara Holland
“We don't get enough pampering. If we were once the only child of an adoring mother, we developed a taste for it; if not, we developed a thirst for it.” IfsChildrenEnoughMotherComfortTasteThirstOnly ChildPampering Author:Barbara Holland
“Coaches and headmasters praise sport as a preparation for the great game of life, but this is absurd. Nothing could be more different from life. For one thing sports, unlike life, are played according to rules. Indeed, the rules are the sport: life may behave bizarrely and still be life, but if the runner circles the bases clockwise it's no longer baseball.” IfsMayStillsDifferentGamesSportsOne ThingBaseballBasesPraiseCoachesCirclesAbsurdPreparationBehaveRunnersHeadmasters Author:Barbara Holland
“Recreational talking is, along with private singing, one of our saddest recent losses. Like singing, talking has become a job for trained professionals, who are paid considerable sums of money to do it on television and radio while we sit silently listening or, if we're truly lonely and determined, call the station and sit holding the phone waiting for a chance to contribute our two cents' worth.” IfsTwoJobsWaitingChanceLossTalkingTelevisionListeningSingingLonelyPaidPhonesRadioDeterminedStationsCentsSaddestTwo CentsTelevision And Radio Author:Barbara Holland
“If a quick glance back over world history shows us anything, it shows us that war was one of our most universal joys from our earliest beginnings, savored at every possible opportunity and even some quite incomprehensible ones.” IfsWorldWarShowsJoyOpportunityUniversalGlancesWorld History Book:Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories Source: Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories
“If we have a decent sort of cat to begin with, and have always treated it courteously, and aren't cursed with meddling, bullying natures, it's a pleasure to let it do as it pleases. With children, this would be wicked and irresponsible, so raising children involves a lot of effort and friction. They need to be taught how to tie their shoes and multiply fractions, they need to be punished for pocketing candy in the grocery store, they need to be washed and combed and forced to clean up their rooms and say please and thank you. A cat is our relief and our reward.” IfsNeedsChildrenWould BePleasureRoomsEffortTaughtPleaseCatCleanRewardsShoesStoresTreatedTiesDecentWickedReliefBullyingCandyRaising ChildrenGroceriesIrresponsibleCursedFractionsGrocery StoresFrictionMeddlingPlease And Thank You Book:Secrets of the Cat: It's [sic] Lore, Legend, and Lives Source: Secrets of the Cat: It's [sic] Lore, Legend, and Lives
“In a proper pub everyone there is potentially, if not a lifelong friend, at least someone to lure into an argument about foreign policy or the Red Sox.” IfsPolicyRedArgumentForeign PolicyLifelongLurePubsLifelong Friends Book:The Joy of Drinking Source: The Joy of Drinking
